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MEXICO CITY — Two of four Americans abducted in Mexico last week when their van was caught in a shootout were found dead, a top Mexican official said Tuesday. The two others have been found alive, with one wounded.
Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal did not provide details on the extent of the wounded person's injuries, saying, "right now, the ambulances and the rest of the security personnel are going to give the corresponding support." The governor did not share any additional details about where or how they were found.
The FBI had reported Sunday that it was searching with Mexican authorities for the missing Americans, who were kidnapped Friday. A relative of one of them said Monday that they had traveled together from South Carolina so one of them could get a tummy tuck from a doctor in the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
Shortly after entering Mexico, they were caught amid fighting between rival cartel groups in the city. A video showed them being loaded into the back of a pickup truck by gunmen. Mexican officials said a Mexican woman also died in Friday's crossfire.
Villarreal confirmed the deaths by phone during a morning news conference by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, saying details about the four abducted Americans had been confirmed by prosecutors.
Obrador complained about the U.S. media's coverage of the missing Americans, accusing them of sensationalizing things. "It's not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States, they go quiet like mummies."
"It's very unfortunate, they (the U.S. government) have the right to protest like they have," he said. "We really regret that this happens in our country."
It's very unfortunate, they (the U.S. government) have the right to protest like they have. We really regret that this happens in our country.
–Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
The U.S. citizens were found in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Longoreño on the way to the local beach known as Playa Baghdad, according to a state authority who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case. Word of their location came to authorities before dawn Tuesday.
Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said on Monday she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning that her younger brother, Zindell Brown, is one of the four Americans.
"This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from," she said in a phone interview. "To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable."
Zalandria Brown said her brother, who lives in Myrtle Beach, and two friends had accompanied a third friend who was going to Mexico for a tummy tuck surgery. A doctor who advertises such surgeries in Matamoros did not answer calls seeking comment.
Brown said the group was extremely close and they all made the trip in part to help split up the driving duties. They were aware of the dangers in Mexico, she added, and her brother had expressed some misgivings. It's not known yet whether her brother survived the kidnapping.
The shootings illustrate the terror that has prevailed for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by factions of the powerful Gulf drug cartel who often fight among themselves. Amid the violence, thousands of Mexicans have disappeared in Tamaulipas state alone.
